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Windows 7: Windows 7 Installation - Prepare PC to be Sold

Sorry to reply to an old thread but is there a similar process in Vista? I searched the Vista forum but couldn't find anything about this, and it's a brilliant way to retire and give away an old machine.

Regards.

You can follow the tutorial as it is also with Vista. For instance the Audit Mode works on Vista (and on Eight) exactly as on Seven, so this method is valid and works for Vista, Seven and Eight alike.

I know its quite some time since you posted this great tutorial. However, I hope you still might be able to help me with it.
I followed the steps on a Win7 Pro x64 Samsung Laptop. After I pressed the Ctrl+Shift+F3 the laptop rebooted as described but instead of continuing with step 15 of the Clean Install Tutorial the System Preparation Tool was displayed. After I pressed Cancel the desktop was displayed but the installation seemed not completed, there was no Ethernet installed for example.

So I must have missed something or the procedure has somehow changed in the meantime.

So I must have missed something or the procedure has somehow changed in the meantime.

Hi Philippe, welcome to the Seven Forums.

No, you have not missed something, I just had an unnecessary step in the instructions. My apologies for that. I have now removed the list item asking to continue from installation tutorial step 15 as totally unnecessary.

The Sysprep box in the middle of the display when you arrive to desktop means you have successfully booted to Audit Mode. As told in step 4 click Cancel to close the Sysprep dialog and continue from step 5 in this tutorial..

Hi Kari, thanks for great tutorial. Quick question, if I have already installed windows and given username and PC name can I still do this? I have heard that if I do it now it will delete the administrator and cause issues for the new user?

The whole idea of this procedure is that the new user starts as if the PC was all new. It has no user accounts, nothing, but instead when booted first time it starts from this asking the new user to create the initial, first user account which will automatically be an administrator account:

Thanks man, understand that. If I however run the sysprep /audit /reboot and then choose the OOBE without the generalise option will it still work. Basically I have a PC that I have installed win 7 on. It has booted and I have installed all drivers etc. now I want to reset it back to the OOBE so I can sell it.

Sysprep does not remove any user accounts. If you sysprep an existing Windows setup with existing users, they will still be there after the sysprep. Even in this case a new user must be created in OOBE phase and it will be admin user, this happens every time after the Sysprep (exception: if the new user is automatically created in an additional, optional answer file used with sysprep).

So let's say you have user accounts Shiva (admin user), Buddha and Allah, then you sysprep. Next boot will be an OOBE boot and requires creating a new admin user. If you now try to create a user Shiva, Buddha or Allah, you get an error message telling that the account already exists, so you need to create a new admin user. OK, you create a new admin user God. When Windows finally ends OOBE and boots to desktop, you have now two admin users (God and Shiva), and two standard users (Buddha and Allah).

Only way to give / sell the PC away without any user accounts is to boot to Audit Mode which automatically uses the built-in admin account, then remove all user accounts and finally sysprep to OOBE.

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